Mando-pop king Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Taiwanese-Australian model/actress Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌) were married in Yorkshire, England, on Saturday afternoon in an extravagant ceremony featuring a string ensemble playing a composition by Chou.
The ceremony at Selby Abbey, in the town of Selby, came the day before Chou’s 36th birthday.
Quinlivan, 21, wore a heavily embroidered ball gown and a NT$33.38 million (US$1.05 million) tiara and necklace worth NT$278.1 million by French jeweler Chaumet.
Photo: Courtesy of JVR Music
Chou said he wrote a song for his marriage “to make the wedding different.”
The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday said the ceremony was believed to have cost more than NT$20 million, including accommodation for guests, which it said cost about NT$10 million.
Chou did not accept any sponsorship for the wedding.
Photo: CNA
However, it was not clear yesterday whether the Selby Abbey ceremony was actually a wedding or a “blessing” service.
According to the abbey’s Web site, under UK law, to be married in the abbey would require at least one of the couple to have lived in the parish of Selby Abbey, attended services for a set period there, or had a parent or grandparent married at the abbey.
According to JVR Music, the couple registered their marriage last year. It is unclear whether the marriage was registered in Taiwan or another country.
Chou’s record and management company, JVR Music, on Saturday released three engagement photographs of the couple that were taken in France, Germany and the Czech Republic in October last year.
One of the photos shows the couple facing each other with the Prague’s historic Charles Bridge the background.
Another shows Quinlivan in a long white dress embracing Chou, who is wearing a white shirt and dark vest and pants, next to a horse in a pasture, with the iconic Bavarian castle of Neuschwanstein in the background.
This story has been amended since it was first published to correct the date of the wedding.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
RSS